"The heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful story of an abandoned polar bear cub named Nora and the humans working tirelessly to save her and her species, whose uncertain future in the accelerating climate crisis is closely tied to our own. Six days after giving birth, a polar bear named Aurora got up and walked away from her den at the Columbus Zoo, leaving her tiny squealing cub to fend for herself. Hours later, Aurora still hadn't returned. The cub was furless and blind, and with her temperature dropping dangerously, the zookeepers entrusted with her care felt they had no choice: They would have to raise one of the most dangerous predators in the world by hand. Over the next few weeks, a group of veterinarians and zookeepers worked around the clock to save the cub, whom they called Nora. Humans rarely get as close to a polar bear as Nora's keepers got to their fuzzy charge. But the two species have long been intertwined. Three decades before Nora's birth, her father, Nanuq, was orphaned when an Inupiat hunter killed his mother, leaving Nanuq to be sent to a zoo. That hunter, Gene Agnaboogok, now faces some of the same threats as the wild bears near his Alaskan village of Wales, on the westernmost tip of the North American continent. As sea ice diminishes and temperatures creep up year after year, Agnaboogok and the polar bears-and everyone and everything else living in the far north-are being forced to adapt. Not all of them will succeed. Sweeping and tender, The Loneliest Polar Bear explores the fraught relationship humans have with the natural world, the exploitative and sinister causes of the environmental mess we find ourselves in, and how the fate of polar bears is not theirs alone"--

Chronicles the mother-daughter relationship of culinary author Ruth Reichl, editor-in-chief of the now-defunct Gourmet magazine, and her late mother, Miriam. Miriam Brudno, who bowed to societal and familial pressure to become a wife and a mother over pursuing a fulfilling career, cheered her daughter on and pointed out that Ruth had an obligation, both to herself and to her mother, to use her life well.

"In the late 1950s, Shaker Heights became a national model for housing integration. And beginning in the seventies, it was known as a crown jewel in the national move to racially integrate schools. The school district built a national reputation for academic excellence and diversity, serving as a model for how white and Black Americans can not just coexist but thrive together. Meckler--herself a product of Shaker Heights--takes a deeper look into the place that shaped her, investigating its complicated history and its ongoing challenges in order to untangle the myth from the truth. She confronts an enduring and troubling question: if Shaker Heights has worked so hard at racial equity, why does a racial academic achievement gap persist?"--Publisher description.

"Rich Paul grew up in a Cleveland that hadn't won a sports championship in decades. He and his siblings lived with their mother, who struggled with addiction, in a one-bedroom apartment in the poverty-stricken Glenville neighborhood. Young Rich dreamed of becoming a star athlete but realized quickly that his small stature would make it nearly impossible. A serious child with a mind for detail, he went to private school and then college at his shop-owner father's encouragement. But he quit when his father died of cancer, devoting himself to becoming the family's next entrepreneur. Paul began selling vintage jerseys out of the trunk of his car, and during one stint at the Akron-Canton Airport, a seventeen-year-old NBA prospect complimented the Warren Moon jersey that Rich was wearing. They struck up a friendship and exchanged contact information. By the next year, LeBron James signed with the Cleveland Cavaliers, and Rich Paul was working alongside him. Paul was finally in the big leagues, but the industry wasn't necessarily ready to accept him. With grit, passion, and an unwavering sense of self, Paul forged a new path, and the NBA hasn't been the same since. Lucky Me is the memoir of that extraordinary journey told in Paul's blunt, philosophical style, but it is also so much more. It is a book full of inspiration and insight, and a testament to never compromising who you are for anyone"--

"Herbstreit ... take[s] you inside the locker rooms, to the practice fields, to the meeting rooms, to the stadiums ... [and] describe[s] how a combination of hard work, perseverance, and a little luck landed him on the set of ESPN's iconic College GameDay show, surrounded by tens of thousands of fans who treat their Saturdays like a football Mardi Gras ... Kirk Herbstreit is the undeniable face and voice of college football--but he's also a survivor. He's the quiet kid who withstood the collapse of his parents' marriage. The boy who endured too many overbearing stepdads and stepmoms. The painfully shy student who always chose the last desk in the last row of the classroom. The young man who persevered through a frustrating Ohio State playing career. The new college graduate who turned down a lucrative sales job after college to pursue a 'no way you'll make it' dream career in broadcasting"--